Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1887-08-16

l was ever i'll bad streak of luck with
pack horses Shortly after the above men
toned rise and fall in beef out of those pan
nierS was employed by a trader on the river
at Hawkins Bar to carry a load of provisions
TO the miners working on the quartz rock River
canyon, some three miles distant up river. 1t
was big load and strapped on cross jack
saddle. and that to beast of mean, vicious
and depraved character. Mind, now, you
MT let him get ahead of YOU" were the
traders last words as he put the halter III my
hands. Wei, n quarter of a mile from the
store, as we were rounding a steep bit of the
mountain, the trail being only wide enough
for one person to pass at time the animal
did force himself almost over me, got ahead
of me, twitched the rope out of my hand and
started Off on a dead run. The first things
that busted" were the fifty pound sacks of
-four; next the potatoes broke loose. The -four
went up like a cloud in the air with his mad
gallopng, and | could see the potatoes rising
and falling through the -four. 1t looked like
a travelling snow storm. The trail was white
with flour for quarter of a mile, and this
wilderness remained all summer, and until the
f9llrains washed it away. As ran believing
after the horse, l noticed fluid stains on the
now red and white pathway-a COM
pound of flour and pulverized red soil This
was the whisky. The two gallon demij john
had broken. So were some $50 worth of pro-
visions retailed out on that trail for mile
and half. When l managed to catch the
brute the pack saddle was empty. | led him
back to the Hawkins Bar store with few
potatoes in my hands that had gathered up,
and told the boss how that load had been
delivered, The blue smoke of an extra dis
charge of profanity did not clear away from
that store for full hour. The next
time, on sending a duplicate load
of the one | had lost, there was
sent man who would not let that horse get
ahead of him But l always attributed the
catastrophe to a yellow ::jacket" that stuug
the animal on the flank. l did not see the
yellow jacket do this did not see any yell
low jacket But l believed in him for all
that No one else did. "The boys" called me
"The Mad Expressman of the Tuolumne"
for months after.
But packing is a science. 1t takes time
and years and experience to adjust and bal
ance properly 200 or 500 pounds of flour,
bacon, potatoes and other articles on an ami
mails back In those early days this
was the general method of transpor-
tation after leaving the few main
i0t'As NiiNNfth ~ NShANASS bpNL dpWU,
down those long, steep mountain sides which
bordered the American Feather, Mokelumne,
CIlaveras. Stanislaus, Tuolumne and many
another roaring, foaming, turbulent streams
where gold was found, nor wagon could roll
unless it rolled much farther than was de-
sirable. Only the mule with his load could
reach the many little camps of those days,
nestled in canyons inclosed by walls so steep
they shut ont the summer SIN nv 1 in, tha
afternoon.
The mule is often perverse creature as to
packing, though l can't find it in my heart
70 blame him for rebelling in some way
against the slavery OF burdens put upon him
during his entire earthly existence. But
when he feels the pack ropes being hauled
taut around his body, fastening the load to his
back, and the packers right boot is pressed
hard against his side in order TO give that
packer a better purchase" in hauling, he
t,ae mule) often commences to swell as well
as grunt and groan and whine as if he were
III great suffering, and this he keeps up dur
ing the whole performance. of which the
principal and to the mule the desired
result is that he collapses ten min
utes after starting on his days journey,
and the process must be gone over again
and sometimes again, and then even
againl We had "yaller mule" in our train
going over to Washoe, that was always med